CONGREGATIONAL GEORGIA.-The map showing the location of the sixtyfour Congregational churches which are directly or remotely interested in the work of this Society was accidentally delayed.

The distribution of these churches in the northern and middle portions of the State, those sections which are the most populous and contain most of the conditions of wealth and prosperity, is an important fact. The distribution is strategic for aggression and growth, and can mean nothing less, if wisely used, than the making of the State so Congregational as to be compared in this respect, at no distant date, favorably with the Western Congregational States.

More than half of all these churches have been organized since the appointment by the A. H. M. S. of a Superintendent for its work in the Southern field. They are young churches, and part of an interesting ecclesiastical development, and that, too, independently of the A. H. M. S..

FREDONIA CHURCH, BARNESVILLE, GEORGIA.-This church is "five miles out." It is a historic spot, both for the Congregational Methodist Church in Georgia and, recently, for the United Congregational Conference of Georgia. Rev. S. C. McDaniel was pastor here for fifteen years. On "Big-Meeting Day" the "arbor" is brought into use. Superintendent Gale says: "On my first visit here I preached in the 'arbor' to an audience of twelve hundred. Go to Fredonia for good meetings; for good fellowship, including a picnic dinner at a table extending one hundred and fifty feet in the shade of the oak trees; and for happy acquaintance with Georgia Congregationalists to the manner born.'"

CONGREGATIONAL METHODISM IN GEORGIA.

HOW DID IT ORIGINATE?

BY REV. S. C. MCDANIEL, ATLANTA, GA.

On the 8th day of May, 1852, nine laymen and three local preachers, all of whom had up to that time belonged to the M. E. Church, South, formed a new church organization at the house of Mickleberry Merritt, in Monroe County, Georgia, and called the organization "THE CONGREGATIONAL METHODIST CHURCH."

These men were eminent for intelligence and usefulness, as well as piety. They had become dissatisfied with the government of the M. E. Church, South; had looked carefully into its foundation principles, as well as its working machinery, and found their own conscientious convictions so absolutely at variance with these foundation principles, and their ideas of proper church polity in such direct conflict with the workings of the machinery of the M. E. Church, South, that they could no longer in good conscience maintain their relations with that church, and hence formed the new organization as just stated.

The reasons which they set out as impelling them to this course were few and pointed:

1. They denied the principle that the clergy govern the church by divine right.

2. They claimed that every member had a right to participate in its government, and that each church had the right to control its own private matters and choose its own officers, including a pastor.

3. They opposed itinerancy as practiced by the M. E. Church, South, as being anti-republican, unsatisfactory, and unnecessarily expensive.

4. They opposed the invidious distinction among regular ministers made by that church between "itinerant" and "local" preachers as unscriptural and hurtful. I give in their own language their principles:

"1. A Christian church is a society of believers, and is of divine institution.

2. Christ is the only Head of the Church, and the Word of God is the only rule of faith and practice.

3. All power necessary in the formation of rules and regulations of government is inherent in the ministers and members of the church.

4. Every man has an inalienable right to private judgment in matters of religion, and all have an equal right to express their opinions in any way that will not violate the laws of God or the rights of men.

5. The pastoral or ministerial office and duties are of divine appointment, and regularly ordained ministers in the church are equal."

These principles, it will be seen, are the principles of Congregationalism, so that this new church was thoroughly Congregational in polity, at the start. For doctrine they adopted the Twenty-Five Articles of Religion found in the "Discipline" of the M. E. Church, and the M. E. Church, South.

Before the close of that year eleven churches had organized; nine in Georgia and two in Alabama. In 1880, there were estimated to be twentythousand Congregational Methodists in the Southern States, with State conferences in the States of Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Texas, and Missouri.

In the early part of 1887, I became acquainted with Dr. Eddy, then the pastor of "The Church of the Redeemer" in Atlanta, Ga. He introduced me to the New Creed of 1883. I found it was my creed; that is, I believed it all. I found myself a Congregationalist. Dr. Eddy found in me a brother of the full-blood. With joy we recognized the family ties, and pledged our mutual vows of fidelity. The Congregational Methodist "to the manner born" soon became acquainted with the Congregationalist from the North. They found that both churches were fully agreed on principle, both of faith and polity; and in that natural way so easily found where mutual love inspires to union, the Congregational Methodist, the